The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Determination of soil liquefaction characteristics by large-scale laboratory tests

De Alba, Pedro; Chan, Clarence K.; Seed, H. Bolton

UCB/EERC-75/14, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1975-05, 173 pages (495/A41/1975)

The report describes a testing program to study the liquefaction characteristics of large (96 in. x 42 in. x 4 in.) specimens of clean, saturated medium sand in cyclic simple shear conditions. Measurements of pore pressure and shear strain development are presented for sand specimens at relative densities of 54, 68, 82, and 90 per cent and the results interpreted to determine the values of stress ratio causing liquefaction at the various relative densities. The effects of system volume change are examined, and appropriate corrections are made to the results. The corrected values are considered to be a very good approximation of the results that would be obtained from an ideal noncompliant testing system and free boundary effects. The corrected test data are also compared with results obtained from small-scale test equipment and cyclic triaxial test and conclusions are drawn regarding the validity of the results obtained by these alternative procedures.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-75-14.pdf (6 MB)